A Soldier's Sad Story: Vietnam Through the Eyes of Black America 1966-73
2003 · Kent CDKEND 226 · UK: England
- Artist
- Various Artists
- Title
- A Soldier's Sad Story: Vietnam Through the Eyes of Black America 1966-73
- Release
- A Soldier's Sad Story: Vietnam Through the Eyes of Black America 1966-73
- Year
- 2003
- Label
- Kent # CDKEND 226
- Format
- CD · Compilation
- Language
- English
- Country
- UK: England
- Songwriter
- Various
- Genre
- Soul, Gospel & Funk · Soul
- Primary theme
- Home Front Perspective / Soldier's Perspective
Annotation — Vietnam War Compilations
Ten years after the Soul of Vietnam release Kent brought out a 24 track compilation (# CDKEND 226), looking at "Vietnam Through the eyes of Back America 1966-73", with a second volume planned for 2005. It included the The Monitors' "Greetings (This Is Uncle Sam)", Emanuel Laskey's "A Letter From Vietnam", and the title track, by Tiny Watkins, "A Soldier's Sad Story". The songs are presented in chronological order, with an extensive booklet, with images of the records and informative notes. Approximately 30% of qualified black people were drafted to fight in the Vietnam War compared to approx. 18% of whites - a major disproportion. Another disproportionate figure is that of the two million soldiers who fought in Vietnam, 10% of those who served were black, yet 12% of casualties were black. Furthermore, under President Johnson's "Project 100,000" initiated in 1966 to expand the war effort, 41% of those drafted were black, even though they only represented 11% of the population. Therefore it is not surprising when the notes of this compilation claim that there are "maybe as many as four times as many 'black' records that take the Vietnam War as their subject matter as there are 'white' ones". The only other area with a huge quantity of Vietnam songs is in the country music genre.
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Notes
Kent (Ace Records) CDKEND 226, CD, UK, 2003; 24 soul tracks from 1966-73 in the order of a soldier's tour: the draft, departure, letters home, the home front and the return (disability, unemployment, addiction), including Big Amos "Going to Viet Nam", Emanuel Lasky "A Letter from Vietnam", The Whispers "P.O.W. - M.I.A." and Curtis Mayfield "Back to the World"; title track by Tiny Watkins. Compiled by Tony Rounce; notes by James Maycock. Entered as one release. [From Discogs and Ace Records]
About the artist
Various Artists
Themes
Draft · Draft Inequality · Soldier's Perspective · Home Front Perspective · Vet · Disabled Vet